Mother explains fatal Pit Bull mauling

SAN FRANCISCO - The mother of a 12-year-old boy killed in his own home by one of the family's two pit bulls says she had been so concerned about one of the dogs that she shut her son in the basement to protect him.

Maureen Faibish said she ordered Nicholas to stay in the basement while she did errands on June 3, the day he was attacked by one or both of the dogs. She said she was worried about the male dog, Rex, who was acting possessive because the female, Ella, was in heat.

"I put him down there, with a shovel on the door," Faibish said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. "And I told him: `Stay down there until I come back.' Typical Nicky, he wouldn't listen to me."

Nicholas apparently found a way to open the basement door.

Despite her concerns about Rex that day, Faibish told the newspaper: "My kids got along great with (the dogs). We were never seeing any kind of violent tendencies."

Faibish found her son's body in a bedroom. He was covered in blood from several wounds, including a major head injury. No charges have been filed.

"It's Nicky's time to go," she said in the interview. "When you're born you're destined to go and this was his time."

Ella was shot to death by a police officer the day of the attack. Rex was taken to a shelter, but Faibish said she wanted him put down.

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Does something not sound right with this Mother / Child relationship? She locked her son in the basement and secured the door with a shovel, to "protect" him?

Excuse me, but I don't believe it is normal to lock your child in the basement, what if a fire were to break out? He'd be trapped, unable to escape. Why not take the child with, if you can't trust the dogs? Why not contain the dogs in a safe environment?

Why were the dogs allowed free roam of the house, while the child was contained?

And then to explain the fatal attack away with the comments that it was Nicky's time to go? Hello, something about this story deeply disturbs me.

Here we have a dead child and his Mother justifies the brutal attack with it was his time to go?

i agree, the mother has a severe problem. if any of my dogs were aggresive towards my kids to the point i couldnt trust them, they would be gone. i am an animal lover too, but my kids are number one. and locking your kid in the basement is just insane. i feel so bad when i picture what that boy went through with no one to help him. they need to make that so called mother responsible for her neglect . i dont understand what makes some people tick. we are all given common sense, i just dont know why some people dont use it.

I am totally with you on this one. There is something seriously wrong here. I hope that the poliece are looking into the details of what was going on in that house. We all know that the media can misconstrew things- the comment about 'it was his time to go' could be a grieving mother's way to deal with the horror of the situation. that said, Who the hell would lock a 12 year old in the basement with a shovel at the door!! The other thing that confuses me is why the poliece would have shot the dog to death. I thought that the story was that the kid came out when no one was home and was killed by the dog- so why on arrival (unless the dog was still attaking the body or was going to attack someone) would they kill the dog, not wait for animal controll to deal with the dogs in a humane and appropriate manner as they did with the other.

A concerned mother wouldn't put her child at risk of injury, she seemed well aware that the animals could be a problem. An animal lover would also make sure the animals are secure as well, as it is now all her animals are being euthanised, thats not a responsible owners, or parent for that matter.Shes probly lieing about something. A 12 year old is quite capeable of understanding that the dogs should be confined and leave them alone. I think the mother is a little nuts. But you know...I've heard Clients say some really wacko/scarey stuff, so who knows??!!

This makes my blood boil. Being a mother of two toddlers, I have to say that I absolutely love animals...but if one of them was so much of a threat to my children that I would have to take the measures of locking my kids away from them, that animal would be gone in a heartbeat. Her child should have been her first priority, it's sickening. Not only that, but like someone else said, why didn't she take her son with her? What is wrong with people having kids all the time and leaving them in cars and houses so they can do their errands without them. That's the responsibility of having children. I feel so sad for that poor boy :(

That story sounds way too fishy... almost makes you wonder if it was even the dogs that killed the boy. A 12 year old generally is mature enough to understand things, and might possibly be strong enough to get into another room if he were being attacked.... the mother needs to be locked up and an investigation really needs to be done... something is just not right with this story.

The story does seem off. I mean, I do believe the dog attacked the boy because of the wounds they described (it's easy for authorities or doctors to tell if someone was attacked by an animal because of the puncture wounds), but who's to say he really attacked him when he did. He could have done it while the mum was home and she was unable to stop it and didn't want to get in trouble for it, so she made up that story.

But if the story is true, there is no way that boy could have fended off that dog alone. It's easy to say that you would just close a door or something...but dogs are really powerful, especially when being aggressive, and you go into panick mode. Even if it were a black lab or something, I don't think a 12 year boy would be able to fend it off.

We can speculate all we want the sad thing is there is one 12 year that is dead now and two dogs.

All that shouldn't be. If the right measures would have been taken then there wouldn't be a sad ending to this story or a story at all.

The thing that gets me is that there are no charges. You would think children services would be involved.

I mean locking your child in the basement alone should get her in trouble. For child endangerment (like someone said there could have been a fire), or wrongfull imprisenment(sp).

If you want to point a finger at mom. Another thing that could have happend was mom did it and the dogs just got into the fight. Not to say all pits are blood thirsty,but I know a few that have been in the middle of dimestic vilince. Were the man would be beat his wife and then the dog would get into the fight. On the man's side.

But like I said before it is all speculation.

I think that it is weird though that the mother found the child and the neighbors didn't hear the child screaming or the dogs barking. Usually when to dogs are in a fight or something the one not doing the fighting is usually barking its incougament.

Even if the dogs didn't make any sound I can't imagaine the boy was silent.

May God rest the soul of the little boy who so needlessly died. He must have suffered and been terrified. :(

My opinion only, but I think the Mother should be held responsible for his death. She can now think about her lack of action into this serious situation for the rest of her life. I don't know the woman, but from this AP New story and from the TV report, she seemed so uncaring about her own child.

Irresponsible dog owners really make me angry. Unfortunately, this will be another blemish on the records for responsible Pit Bull owners.

The pit bull that was shot was shot because it was blocking the enterence to the apartment. With a child down, bleeding like it was, seconds count and you don't have time to second guess the dog's intentions or call the mother to come get her dog.

As for the "It was his time to go" comment, that's really.. 1890s. From the mom's point of view, she loves pit bulls, and doesn't want to blame the breed, and only accepts some of the blame herself, the only other thing you can blame is a random act of God, or fate.

As a parent, I can't believe anyone could say after having their child killed, that it was his time to go. That is something you say after months or years of the greiving process! It sounds very fishy to me. Why would any parent put their child in harms way and if she was so worried that the dogs would hurt anyone, why weren't they put down or left in the house with her child.

I had to reply b4 reading the rest of the comments cause this story just doesnt sound right to me.Locking a child in the basement........... 1) i wouldnt leave the child home alone especialy if I was worried about an aggressive dog

2) it would be the dog that would get locked in the basement

3) to solve all these problems I wouldnt have an aggressive dog in my house around my kids.

I have been doing my own little project and researching dog bite statistics and what I want to know is why is it always the "pit bull" type dogs(half the time they cant even prove it is an APBT) that is always being talked about.They are not the only dog that can be vicious and or has bitten,mauled or even killed a human being.

I've found stories on rotties,boxers,poms,dashaund<sp> and even trainned police dogs that have gone bad.

Did any of you ever hear of a man named Bill O'Riley? Well he is on a mission to ban the breed FOREVER.He wants to ban all breeders of the breed so that there really does come an end to our beloved breed.That is what a few of my friends are involved with right now ....e-mailing him ect.

One of my favorite quotes that was actually said by someone on here awhile ago is.....

"People dont judge all humans by what one human does so why do we judge the whole breed by what one dog does"

Do not know where to even begin with this one. Do not have enough fingers to point. The vast majority of the fingers would be pointed at mom. "His time to go...."..regarding this situation!!!! Enough stinking bullcrap to fertilize my garden till retirement.